Behavior ABC's

This article was submitted by Debbie Richter, Developmental Specialist.

Every behavior has a purpose.

Analyze--what happened prior to the child's display of challenging behavior?  

Was the child tired, hungry or not feeling well?  Is the child trying to manipulate the adults in his/her world?

Behavior--what did the child's behavior look like?  Is it a typical tantrum or is it a total meltdown?

Consequence--what was the reaction to the child's behavior?

A child will display negative behavior if it gets a response.  Remember, attention for negative behavior can be just as rewarding to a child as receiving reinforcement for positive behavior.  

A few tips regarding behavior in general.  All adults should have the same expectations of the child.  If you do not, your child will learn to play adults against each other.

A few tips to help with behavior issues in the home:

Try to keep your child's life as routine as possible.

Redirect your child to another activity to see if you can get the negative behavior to stop.

Ignore as much negative behavior as possible.  When the child is not rewarded for negative behavior, they will often stop the behavior.  Don't give up immediately when something doesn't work however because most children's behavior will get worse before it gets better.

Give one warning and one warning only for the child to change his/her behavior.  If the child's behavior is dangerous then skip the warning and go directly to a time out or a redirection situation.  Make sure time out is in a safe location.  As soon as the child brings himself under control, ask if he is ready to resume his previous  positive activity.  Reinforce the reason the child was in time out.  

A few tips for behavior issues outside of the home:

Take something with you that is of interest to your child and let him have it only when you are away from home.

Try to have 2 adults present. Give the child one warning to change his/her behavior and then remove the child from the community setting and take him to the car.  Tell the child when he/she is ready to try again you will return to the store/restaurant or wherever you happen to be.  Repeat this process as many times as necessary.  

If the child is challenging in community settings try to keep your outings as brief as possible.  Keep in mind how long your own attention span is when considering how long we expect our youngsters to tolerate outings.  

Talk to your child about where you are going.  For example,  "we are going to the grocery store." If you have another errand to run, tell the child where you plan to go next when you are getting ready to leave the grocery store.